The Elemental Lords
by TotallyMental
Summary: The ultimate battle for survival.


_**A/N- My first story :D. After a while of pondering over it, I have decided to write a story. However, before I begin the prologue/chapter 1, I would like to point out a few things.**_

_**Please review as strictly as possibly, for how shall I learn if not through my mistakes (That was kind of retarded, cuz I can go to school, etc.)**_

_**If a character is thinking something, I will put it in ITALICS instead of quotation marks.**_

_**I should have made that a couple of things to point out, however, with this last statement I am contradicting myself… bit of a wordy paradox there**_

_**Quote from Author of "Revolt of the Archers"**_

'_**ALL YOUR REVIEWS ARE BELONG TO ME!'**_

**Prologue**

Luke woke with a blinding pain in his left eye.

_Probably made direct contact with something using my eye. Now why would I do something like that?_ He thought.

He waited for the hurt to subside. After realising it probably would take a while, he tried to stand up but found his legs weren't functioning properly. Opening his eyelids took quite a bit of force, and in the end they opened, but he immediately wished he hadn't. A green face stared right back at him. Its lifeless eyes seemed to drain his soul and the mouth only added to the horrific description. He couldn't see the rest of it, and he didn't want to either.

He simply lay there, staring into the monster's eyes, when it suddenly started to hiss and expand. Luke tried to run, though he forgot about his non-functioning legs. Bracing for what was to come, he didn't exactly expect it to explode.

_*Darkness*_

**Chapter One**

The dark closed in on him. Just before it completely encased him, a bright pinpoint of light flashed and the darkness receded.

_Okay, that was strange, though, am I dead, for if I am dead why am I still having thoughts? Is this what people say is the afterlife? Why am I lying on some soft-fluffy surface? _These thoughts ran through Luke's mind as his eyes adjusted to the glare of the midday sun. He just died, or so he thought, but he was still standing, metaphorically speaking.

The ground felt like sand. In fact, it was sand. He felt wet all over, but that was due to the exertion his body had just gone through, not because he was in a pond. The landscape had a few trees in it, although mostly a flat terrain. Since he had no memories of his previous life, Luke decided to try and find some civilisation. If he did, they could help to bring back memories. He had major doubts about this seeing as death normally meant you didn't come back to life, and that he could be in heaven, though he gave it a shot.

Before he took off, he noted the sun's position in the sky. It was directly above him, so he had no idea which way to go to find North, which meant his futile attempts at knowing where he was going, would fail. He would just have to choose a random direction and hope there was some form of intelligent species. Well, they didn't have to be intelligent per-say, just friendly enough to let our lonely adventurer reside for a while until he learned what he needed.

The trek was hard and taxing, though after about what seemed an hour, Luke, sat down on the edge of a mountain and had a hard earned rest. He went through the events of the day, in deep thought and came to the conclusion that he was dead. So, he casually walked around.

_Dead man walking. Huh, that's kind of strange. Well, seeing as I'm dead, I'll have plenty of time to remember how I got here. _He thought as he walked around.

About an hour after having these thoughts he still couldn't remember, so in frustration, he jumped off of a cliff in the hope he would stay dead.

**Chapter 1-suspense end**

As he fell off the fifty metre high mountain, his life flashed before his eyes, and he remembered some things. He was an engineer that did plumbing as a part-time job and he had a wife, though she disappeared a few weeks before he did. Unfortunately, he only had time to remember these things as split-seconds later, he hurtled into the pond.

"AAAHHHHHH!" he screamed as stood up from the pond. "WHAT THE HELL? WHY AREN'T I DEAD?"

His current predicament wasn't helped by the fact that the physics in this strange place were majorly screwed up. He only just took heed of the fact that there was a floating island just metre's away from him.

While only suffering minimal damage to his major organs, he still felt pain on his chest, as if he had bellyflopped into a still body of water, which he had done on multiple occasions, including now.

_Ooh, I can remember something. So, I failed at swimming did i? Well that sucks._

Still aching, he lay down on the grass next to the pond.

_Why didn't I die for real? I mean, the pond is only a metre deep, I should have died. Oh well, might as well keep searching._

Just as he said that, the shadows made by the trees were suddenly elongated. When he looked over to the setting sun, he had fears about what would happen if he was caught out. However, despite his uncertainties, the beauty of this particular sunset was indescribable. After watching it for a magical minute, he noticed a figure on a horizon, near where the sun seemed to be setting. The figure wasn't very visible, so he couldn't describe him. The man's gait seemed awkward, so Luke decided to rush over and help him.

The man was bent over and his arm was bleeding, or rather, was bleeding seeing as there was dried up blood on his sleeve.

"Are you alright?" rasped Luke, realizing he was parched and in need of water.

"Ueerrgghhh." Groaned the man. "Smah blurhm bertz."

To Luke, this roughly translated as 'My arm hurts'.

The man began turning around and then, in the moonlight, features of his face could be made out. His skin was completely white and the mouth was grinning evilly. The mouth also seemed to have blood around it.

Horrified, Luke stepped back, only to run into something that made a hissing noise.

"_Hssssss_. Hello _sssss_weetie."

He turned around and stared right into the face of the thing that had killed him, or rather, transported him here. Its face was distorted and blank this time. The cape around the creature's shoulders showed that it was probably in charge of something.

As our character looked around him, he saw no quick way off the mountain. The two ways that were possible to run up and down were blocked off by the human cannibal and the cactus like horror. The other ways were off the cliff and into the ground on one side and on another side a cave that looked very dark and forbidding. However, despite his sudden fear of the dark, he sprinted into the cave.

It was scary and he couldn't see anything. When noises were heard, he stopped running and huddled against what he presumed was a wall. The voices, well it was only one voice but it sounded like a lot because of the echoes, were getting closer. It sounded feminine and trembling.

A light came into view and a little girl's face appeared.

"Hello little girl, what's your name?"

Then, in a voice that sounded like it was a mixture of a few horror movies, the girl spoke.

"I'M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!"

No sooner had she finished speaking when puppet strings appeared above her head and began chasing Luke. Strangely though, as he ran, Luke caught sight of another torch. He ran towards it and found man that was either deceased or unconscious. Turning around to check if the girl was still following him, he took the torch and threw it against a wall.

The man had dark brown hair and wore almost identical clothes to Luke. The same black jeans and whiteish-blueish t-shirt, though his shoes were different. Where Luke's shoes were raben-like, the man's shoes were more like greaves. They were made of a red metal with gold engraved in it. There were wings in the middle. As if to complement the shoes, the man carried a bow that looked like the sheer awesomeness of it could kill something. It was mostly of gold, except for the tip. It was in the shape of a dragon and its string was made out of the finest material. When he twanged it, it made a sound like a harp. However, he didn't have long to enjoy the sound because the man woke up and somehow, Luke ended up on his face with the bow pointed at Luke and it was armed too.

"Who are you and what do you want?" The man asked in a relatively low voice.

"AH!AH! GEDDOFF ME!"

"Not until you answer my questions. I'm giving you ne more chance seeing as you tried to steal my bow."

"I didn't try to steal your bow!" The man pulled back further. "NO WAIT! My name is Luke and I was running away from some monster girl thing."

And right on cue, a bone-chilling laugh that of a child girl, echoed through the caves.

"Ah I see. Well, that's good enough for me. The name's Marco, but people prefer to call me 'Striker'. Now, Luke, I want you to show me where you saw the girl. I've been hunting it for days now. She brings distress to the villagers by kidnapping the youngest child, cutting its head off, taking the ha…"

"OK, I've heard enough, I don't want to know." Luke nearly vomited his insides due to his weak stomach. Ah, he remembered another thing. Excellent.

Marco followed Luke to the place where the girl scared the hell out of him. After waiting for what felt like hours, to Marco's delight, the girl's voice was heard again. The same things happened, except this time, Luke was prepared, he had Marco to protect him.

"I CALL UPON YOU, GOD OF WIND, TO AID MY QUEST IN DEFEATING THIS RAVENOUS BEAST!" shouted Marco suddenly and scaring the willies out of Luke. "DRAGON PULSE!" And he let fly the devastating projectile. The arrow came out at first, but then somehow, in mid-flight, mutated into a ferocious purple dragon's head.

It flew true and struck the girl in the forehead. She dropped to the ground, like lightning to the earth and turned to dust.

"Easy monster to destroy, but hell of a job finding her. Let's take you home." Said Marco as if he knew everything there was to know about this monster, which he probably did." Luke? Where are you?"

He searched around and eventually found him hiding in a small crevasse under a rock, trembling with terror.

"What are you doing in there? Get out, let's go, it's almost daybreak.

As Marco had said, daybreak fell upon them as soon as they left the cave. The air smelled of burning meat. Where the smell could possibly come from, he had no clue, but he suddenly had an urge to eat something. A pig appeared about halfway down the hill that they were going down. Its porkiness was enough to make Luke's mouth water.

"Phlood." He spluttered as water cascaded out of his mouth. Luke thundered towards the unsuspecting pig and gutted it without hesitation.

"OMNOMNOMNOM!"

"Er… Luke? That was disgusting even by my standards."

"HEY! STRIKER!" called a voice from the bottom of the mountain, "DID YOU GET THE GIRL?"

"YEAH!" answered Marco.

"COOL BRO!" shouted the voice again, "HEY! MOTHER SAYS WE GOTTA GO GET SOME WHEAT FROM THE FARM, WE LOW ON IT!"

"MAYBE ANOTHER TIME, I'M GOING TO GET TO KNOW LUKE BETTER!"

"Really?" asked Luke, "You can help me? Oh thanks man!"

"Erm. Help? With what?"

"I just woke up on this place, I don't actually know anything about this place except there is a farm and that scary things come out at night."

"I see. Well, I'm sure I could give you some equipment to start you off." Encouraged Marco with an air of power around him."

"Don't go too far out, you know you can't handle the monsters past the Paladin's Tower."

"All right mother. But you should relax you know, even if I do, I reckon I can last at least an hour. I'm a warrior after all."

Hollis left the little hut feeling full of adrenaline. Despite what his mother said, today was the day he would see what it was like past the Paladin's Tower. Those that became powerful enough to go rarely came back. Of those that came back, they say that the others were slaughtered by an assortment of monsters.

He casually walked through the forest. Being a relatively new land, the tallest tree in the forest was only a branch taller than him. Because of this, the leaves weren't large or high enough to block out the sunlight. However, the nearby swamp somehow generated its own darkness, and thus was the cause of the village's troubles. Every week there would be a number of monsters swarming out to attack. These monsters included the notorious guumwa, a block shaped beast covered with hair, a stirge, the usual bat only more purple and sharp, and worst of all, the dreaded jockey, a fearsome combination of the stealthy and fast spider and the long ranged shooter the skeleton. Hollis had never seen a jockey, but a guumwa and stirge he had. Reason being that village sentries, which comprised of hunters and crossbowmen, with the rare ranger and sniper, decapitated them before he saw one. Each group of sentries, usually one hunter and four crossbowmen, was helped by a wizard, often a highly paid cleric, but sometimes the more offensive kind.

This formation of groups was probably the most effective seeing as no monster had ever breeched the village's defences, other than that one time when the king had become possessed by Alishar, the demon prince.

"If I can get past the Paladin's Tower and into the forbidden lands, I will be a hero."

Funnily enough, that was the same thought that went through every single adventurer's mind, just before being slaughtered by a stray slime, one of the weakest monsters known to the village. However, unlike any other adventurer, Hollis had, and would you believe it, a brain. Yes, he had a brain, but so did everyone else, the fact is that he used his brain to some small extent. He figured that if rangers could get through the forbidden lands, then so could he. Hollis's father's sword was at the belt that Hollis wore. That particular sword was his favourite because it had been imbued with the power of a dark knight. However, Hollis never once stopped to think why this was strange. A dark knight used a spear, not a sword. Just like any of the other dim witted adventurers, he didn't use his brain that much.

As night crept up on Hollis, he built a house. Using some wood from the tree beside him, he crafted a nice house which was about seven by ten on the base, and four metres high. The admiration that came after was short-lived as a zombie and a pack of slimes approached.

"The slimes could make good ground linings for my bed, and, well, who knows, I might meet someone that needs feathers along my trip."

He readied his sword and prepared to attack. He didn't get to train much, so this was a welcome change from gardening and reading the whole time. Because of the weather that is. In the village, there were only two types of weather, though this day was quite devoid of any of the two. There was sweltering hot summers and autumns, when the bushfire rate would have driven the habitants of the village out long ago had the founder not been an Ice and lightning infused arch mage. The other of the two was a freezing cold and utterly wet Winter and Spring. Again, due to his total lack of attention, he didn't notice.

The slime was first to test Hollis's skills. It bounced in the air, but was stopped dead when Hollis shouted, " SLASH BLAST!" Though this was a spell which used the sword to cut through a number of monsters, the small aftershock of the spell was barely enough to carry itself at the zombie, but instead went only at the slime.

Its eyes closed slowly and out popped a ball of slime which Hollis hurriedly picked up and prepared for the zombie.

"IRON BODY! SLASH BLAST!" Shouted Hollis in quick succession, the result of which he grew a few centimetres and the leftover power was thrown at the zombie, which in turn puffed into a cloud of smoke. Three feathers fell and he picked them up. He checked his surroundings and made himself a door out of another tree that sprung into existence as he battled. The slime, he used and spread evenly to make a puffy bed and he fell asleep dreaming about how he would follow in his father's footsteps as a dark night, the most respected of all warriors.

"LUCKY SEVEN! YEEEAAARGH!" screamed Olsen with a fury that was born from seeing his house get burned down for the fifty-eth time by a pack of fire boars. He hated these boars especially because they were immune to the effects of the sun, so they could stay alive during the day.

Olsen lived alone. His parents had long abandoned him after he almost blew himself up while trying to focus all his energy into one spell. That was a few years ago, and because it has much to do with the ongoing storyline, I will now explain what happened.

Olsen woke up one morning with a dream. A dream that, using his superior intellect, he would harness all the physical energy of the objects in the landscape around him and project it as one beam of energy, so powerful that when used to its full potential, not even the Pink Bean could survive one shot. Though it wasn't the Pink Bean that Olsen wanted dead. It was in fact a creature from another realm. A realm so devastated, that humans could no longer live there, but instead moved to the land Olsen was in now. But, because of the lack of humans controlling the generation of new life forms, a new breed of monster was born. It was formed when the atoms in the dimension began to superheat and they all split. But, in splitting, they spontaneously generated a monster so terrifying, that hellish wasn't a word I would use to describe it.

When a human visited the realm, he found the creature and described it to his council leaders as something that was as ghastly as the devil itself, so the humans called it a ghast.

But anyway, back to the story, the fire boar that started the fire went out with the bucket that Olsen poured on it. It was a tough life, here in Perion, but that was the way Olsen liked it. The tougher it was, the better the conditions were for training his skills. He used to live in nautilus harbour, but it was too simple there. Just a few slimes, a zombie and a couple skeletons were all that populated the place before he came. Now, in Perion, the sun is hot, the conditions are harsh, what with the sandstorms and skeleton arrow rains, and you couldn't get a peaceful night's sleep.

After successfully qualifying for his thirtieth grade, he realised he was eligible for his rank to become higher. The job of his dreams was a night lord, but he had to pass his one hundred and twentieth grade test. For now, an assassin would do.

He packed his bags and loaded his claw. He wore a claw which was shaped into the head of one of his great enemies, Astaroth the demon lord. After defeating it, he found a claw in its pocket which suited him perfectly. After making this discovery, he wore the claw ever since. It greatly improved his battle performance and helped him through the toughest of times. When he realised just how much potential it had, he enchanted it to become one of the most powerful items he could ever use. More powerful than a claw that a hermit at grade one hundred used. But that's beside the point. The main thing is that he had a really strong weapon and now he was going to become an assassin.

The journey to Kerning city, the city notorious for the highest crime rate in the world, had begun.

**The lord of darkness watched as these three troublesome kids travelled around. He had already reduced the bowmaster Luke, who had reached his two hundredth grade, to a little kid who barely knew the meaning of the word bow. And now, he plotted his revenge against the other two, both sons of the most powerful man and woman in the world.**

_**A/N**_

_**Yeah… pretty crap, I know, but hey, there's more to come.**_

_**And also, Infraredd, I know I said 20k words, but I felt that I should make a shorter prologue type thing, and THEN post big ass chapters.**_


End file.
